April 17, 1895. 



Garden and Forest. 



153 



only useful for the splendid growth of grasses in its 



valleys. 



The Banksian Pine has a great northern range, being 



found from Michigan north-westward through Minnesota 



and into Manitoba, but it is not a native of the plains 



region. In standing where a great percentage of Bull Pine 



failed — the latter being native within sixty miles— it not 



only shows peculiar adaptability, but suggests its extensive 



use as a pioneer tree throughout the sand hills of Nebraska 



— a region from thirty to sixty miles wide and over two 



hundred miles long. ^, , , r^ rr 



Washii.fjion, D. c. tnaiies A. Aeffer. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



BuLBOPHYLLUM GRAKDiFLORUM. — A plant of thls was shown 

 in flower last Tuesday by Sir Trevor Lawrence under the 

 very inappropriate name of Bulbophyllum Burfordense. It 

 was first figured and described by Blume in Rumphia, iv. , 

 page 42, where it is said to be " wild in woods on the coast 

 of New Guinea. Flowers the largest of the genus, above 

 eight inches in diameter ; scape six inches high. The dor- 

 sal sepal brownish and netted with a paler color, the others 

 not netted. Lip whitish, with red spots." The flower on 

 the plant shown by Sir Trevor Lawrence had a concave 

 sepal four and a half inches long and two inches broad, the 

 two lateral sepals being narrower, but quite as long, the 

 petals and lip being small and inconspicuous. The color 

 of the dorsal sepal was yellowish green, with gray mottling 

 and darker veins, the other two being dull pale brown, with 

 a gray reticulation. Rhizome as thick as a goose-quill, the 

 pseudo-bulbs an inch apart, narrow, ovate, an inch long, 

 each bearing an oblanceolate leaf eight inches long by two 

 in width. Although wanting in color, this is one of the 

 most remarkable Orchids introduced in recent years. Sir 

 Trevor obtained it from L'Horticulture Internationale a 

 few years ago, this being the first time it has been seen in 

 flower in Europe. There is, however, another Bulbophyl- 

 lum of this name, a figure of which will be found in Lin- 

 denia, vol. iii.,t. 108 (1887), and which had been introduced 

 from New Guinea by Monsieur Linden, and flowered in 

 his nursery. Reichenbach identified this with Blume's 

 plant, an extraordinary blunder, the two being very widely 

 distinct. For the latter plant Mr. Rolfe proposes the name 

 of B. longisepalum, on account of its very narrow attenu- 

 ated sepals. Both, however, belong to the same section, 

 namely, Sarcopodium. 



BoLLEA ScHRCEDERiANA. — This is a ucw spccics, according 

 to Messrs. F. Sander & Co., who have lately introduced it, 

 and who showed it in flower last Tuesday, when it was 

 awarded a first class certificate by the Royal Horticultural 

 Society. It was a fine specimen, bearing eleven large 

 fragrant flowers with white sepals and petals, flushed at 

 the tips with rose, and a pink labellum, which had a short 

 claw and a thick boss-like crest. Botanically it belongs to 

 the Zygopetalums, but for garden purposes the sectional 

 name, Bollea, is convenient. 



Dendrobium Cordelia is a new Veitchian hybrid between 

 D. aureum and D. euosmum leucopterum, the latter being 

 the seed parent. It most resembles D. aureum, the sepals 

 and petals being cream-white, with a tinge of rose on the 

 margins, the lip being purplish, with yellow blotches and 

 veins. It received an award of merit. The "pedigree" of 

 this hybrid is as follows : D. Japonicum x D. aureum^ 

 D. Endocharis ; D. nobile x D. Endocharis=D. euosmum ; 

 D. aureum x D. euosmum, var.^D. Cordelia. 



Dendrobium Hildebrandii. — We are indebted to Mr. Hil- 

 debrand, of the Shan States, in Upper Burma, for the dis- 

 covery of this Dendrobium, as well as for the introduction 

 of various other good garden-plants — that is, Lonicera 

 Hildebrandii, /Eschynanthus Hildebrandii, etc. The Den- 

 drobium was first introduced to England by Messrs. Low 

 & Co. in 1893, when only a single plant, now in the collec- 

 tion of Baron Schrceder, was received. This week Messrs. 



Low & Co. sold a large importation of it by auction, and as 

 the species is known to be a desirable one, and the plants 

 were in good condition, they realized good prices. The 

 species is closely allied to D. tortile, which, again, is, of 

 course, not unlike D. nobile, but there is considerable varia- 

 tion in color in the new one, some of the flowers being 

 yellowish, others rose-tinted, the lip being blotched with 

 red in some cases, pure yellow in others. The flowers are 

 about tvvo and a half inches wide, and, as in D. tortile, the 

 sepals and petals are more or less spirally twisted. It is 

 likely to become a popular plant with Orchid-growers. 



Dendrobium nobile nobilius. — A truly marvelous speci- 

 men of this beautiful Orchid was shown last Tuesday by 

 Mr. E. Ashworth, Wilmslow, Cheshire. Some of the pseudo- 

 bulbs, of which there was quite a sheaf, were nearly four 

 feet long, and the number of expanded flowers upon them was 

 three hundred and eighty-nine. Typical Dendrobium nobile, 

 when well flowered, is one of the grandest of Orchids, and 

 as the variety nobilius is probably the best of the many 

 fine-named varieties of it now in cultivation, the magnifi- 

 cence of Mr. Ashworth's specimen can easily be imagined. 

 The flowers are larger and darker in color than any, the 

 sepals and petals being rich amethyst and the lip dark 

 maroon, with a cream-white margin. There are not a few 

 spurious plants of nobilius about, but all the genuine ones 

 are from one plant, which was first shown in flower at 

 Ghent in 1878 by Messrs. Rollison, of Tooting, when it 

 nearly succumbed to exposure, but luckily it was saved by 

 Mr. James, of Norwood, who succeeded in propagating six 

 young plants from the old pseudo-bulbs. 



JASMiNUM sp. AFF. J. NUDiFLORUM. — Dried Specimens of a 

 Jasmine collected in Yun-nan by Mr. W. Hancock, F. L. S. , 

 have recently reached Kew, where it has been determined to 

 be a new species allied to Jasminum nudiflorum. The latter 

 is one of the oldest and best of our hardy winter-flowering 

 scandent shrubs, its yellow flowers, freely produced in fas- 

 cicles all along the whip-like branches, being the delight of 

 many an old garden-wall in the depth of winter, if only the 

 sun shines now and then. The new one has flowers ex- 

 actly like those of D. nudiflorum, but at least twice as large, 

 the dried flowers of the former being nearly two inches in 

 diameter. It is to be hoped that living plants of this most 

 desirable plant will soon be forthcoming. Perhaps Dr. 

 Henry, now in England, but who, I believe, intends shortly 

 to return to Yun-nan, will add the introduction of this plant 

 into English gardens to his many achievements in the in- 

 terests of botany and horticulture. J. nudiflorum is a native 

 of China ; possibly this new one is a big variety of it. Let 

 us hope it is. 



Magnolia Campbelli. — I have already recommended this 

 grand Himalayan Magnolia to readers of Garden and 

 Forest. To-day, Mr. Osborne, the gardener to J. Smith- 

 Barry, Esq., M. P. , Fota, near Cork, has sent me two mag- 

 nificent blooms of it, cut from a tree twenty-five feet high, 

 growing in the open air. He says it is not vers^ free-flow- 

 ering in the moist, usually sunless climate of Fota, but I 

 have heard of the large specimen in Mr. Crawford's garden, 

 in the same neighborhood, flowering very freely. It is 

 quite hardy at Kew, even the severe weather of the past 

 winter having done it no harm. The flowers are as large 

 as those of M. grandiflora, but colored a charming rosy or 

 blush-red, reminding one in their elegance of form and 

 richness of tint of a dark variety of Nelumbium speciosum. 

 It is a native of the eastern Himalaya at an altitude of 

 8,000 to 10,000 feet, where it forms a lofty tree with "white 

 or rose flowers six tp ten inches in diameter." The leaves 

 are ovate, glaucous green, about eight inches long and 

 deciduous. 



CoRNUs Mas. — The prettiest tree in the arboretum at Kew 

 this month is the Cornelian Cherry, a well-known garden 

 plant, but not nearly as plentifully planted here as it de- 

 serves to be. The branches are clothed from top to bottom 

 in March with little clusters of small yellow flowers, which 

 glisten in the sunshine and last several weeks. I should 

 place it in the same categor)' among good garden shrubs 



